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Review from an Anonymous Developer [CA response]

Comments

I feel bad for CA--surely they didn't want to release the game like this, but were locked in to a contract and had to. I'm sure they know the problems but were in a jam. There's a load of potential, just not quite executed all the way.

"[A]ges of siege warfare culminated in the use of torches. It is simply not plausible." Garbarsardar

*bump* For all the bugs and problems. This game is simply just not what we where expecting........

The TW Series for a lot of us, was the DEFACTO STANDARD in the VERY BEST strategic gaming had to offer.... none of us had to purchase any other strategic title as long as we had the latest TW..... we would be happy playing them for years, and even revisiting previous titles now and again for a little fun. That is rare in a series... that you can enjoy even going back a few revisions.

What we have here is a disaster to what we have come to know and love about our TW product and the iterations of it over time. This is not just a step backward.... but for the TW Series.... it took us from a Gradual March to perfection to a running .. jumping.. leap off a steep cliff....

This game.. Has got to be the single biggest disappointment in my entire life...

This used to be the only gaming title... that I could pre-order without a shred of worry... knowing that bugs would be fixed eventually.........

But we have altered some extremely fundimental concepts about this game that made TW what it was.... Troop Disbursement... Being able to micromanage everything... With easy enough menu's.. but a complex tree....

A lot of stuff was just dumbed down..... to be blunt... stuff that was perfected by this franchise over time was simply tossed aside....

Darth had an interview with CA before, but didn't get it. He isn't the only modder out there though.

Lots of modders out there...not just Darthmod. The Roma Surrectum series, the Rome Total Realism series...

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.
- William Tecumseh Sherman

I can't say i don't like Rome 2, because i do.. but all in all, i agree with your post.

I have played games just as buggy as this (i actually havn't witnessed many bugs at all, 1 or 2?, and they wern't major), if not more so, but certain aspects of the game, should have been tested properly, and havn't been..

As i say, all in all i do agree with you. Good decent post.

I dislike people crying on these forums, 99% of the posts are, but i must admit, they do get CA's attention when there's alot of it.

I agree with everything you said wholeheartedly. My own post reflecting the same views was relegated to the the "Rant" section. I hope yours isn't.

Incidentally, don't you just hate how some dumb and ignorant people continue to defend the game, accusing us detractors as "cry babies", while failing to provide even one thoughtful, thorough post specifying how and why we are wrong?

I particularly hate those people who in light of everything that has happened continue to defend CA's decision not to release a demo. And don't get me started on the relativists--those who say that it's all a matter of opinion, as if evaluating a video game was beyond our analytic capacity as a human race.

Thank you, have you noticed that we are 8 pages in and so far there haven't been any fanboys here...perhaps the facts put in the way I have has driven them away.

Also notice that this hasn't been moved yet, a good sign from CA so far.

I wouldn't be surprised if a number of the poor features were initially placeholders and CA ran out of time and money. Sega, of course, has to answer to stockholders first, not to customers, so it too has limits.

"[A]ges of siege warfare culminated in the use of torches. It is simply not plausible." Garbarsardar

I don't know about the link and haven't seen anything official, however the signs are there. Streamline, reduce complexity, get your engine working, upgrade the visuals, streamline the GUI and.....

If I were to guess, I'd guess console yes.

I've seen this speculation and it does seem compelling I just don't understand this move. It wasn't advertised as cross console and the majority of the fan base is on the PC. If the initial release is so hampered and by the goal of porting the game eventually that it leads to a failed release (not fiscally), then I don't understand the long term success in this move at all. I'm just afraid CA could end up like Sierra and I eventually won't be able to enjoy real time battle based strategy games the same way I can't enjoy city builders like I used to...

Said something on the TWcenter.net forums about "retiring" and he is working on his own game

Couldn't have come at a worst possible time because the TW fans need him more than ever to fix what should have been the most epic game of all time (for me, never have I looked forward to a game so much but it's clear to me after just 8 hours that while it's enjoyable and has some great ideas it hasn't quite got the formula of what made TW games great)

I'll try to get hold of him, if nothing else to hire the man he is excellent.

PM me and perhaps we can talk, it is most certainly partisan. I'm not in the same area, the same league and no competition at all. As I said this post is my opinion as a paying customer, but with the professional experience and knowledge to back them up.

If I didn't post how I posted it, I think it would have been drowned out in all the noise.

This has the attention it needs...

Apologies I meant it is NOT partisan, my fault. Watch me get banned now for a typo.

They're probably employing the power of silence--which apparently works over the long term. Short term--it's a big risk to say anything now, aside from talking up patches and support. Too much could go wrong.

"[A]ges of siege warfare culminated in the use of torches. It is simply not plausible." Garbarsardar

I really don't understand this sudden last minute compression of the game from 35Gb to 18Gb. Honestly my retail cover box says 35Gb. I'm highly suspicious of this because to me it looks like they realised the game was never going to run on the majority of systems so the art assets were quickly downscaled in an attempt to cater to all systems. Its happened before look at Skyrim which of course was designed for consoles first and PC second even if its not exactly the same. It would explain a great deal of the current graphic issues.
I can't say I've seen any very high resolution textures in the game. Normal maps are also flaky at best and look low res. Currently running on ultra settings. I wonder if any modders have actually unpacked the art assets to get a clearer idea on the texture sizes.

And now even Creative Assembly, they have all turned their backs on us it seems... CA still has a shot, a longshot to save our faith... But will Sega allow them to spend the time, money and effort needed to fix this game.. Or will they be forced to move on to the next project before then?

Before we know it companies like Paradox will be bought out by EA and forced into shallow and uninspired games as well.

Only my personal opinion but the general business model now is for CA to separate a small team to patch and continue to work on Rome2 while the majority move on to Warhammer....

Excellent post, hope CA read it pretty much states everything that is wrong with the game at the moment. I really dont want to wait 6 months to a year for modders to fix this game, I know it can be a great game.

Only my personal opinion but the general business model now is for CA to separate a small team to patch and continue to work on Rome2 while the majority move on to Warhammer....

Do you think that's the reason for the product we received? Did they invest too much of their resources on the new Warhammer game instead of polishing Rome II? Is it common for dev teams to switch too early and have that impact the finished product of the first game?

They're probably employing the power of silence--which apparently works over the long term. Short term--it's a big risk to say anything now, aside from talking up patches and support. Too much could go wrong.

This happened in the aftermath of Mass Effect 3, which, admittedly was only a story problem, the rest of the game was pretty well done and very polished, but still... it is a very frustrating, depressingly effective method of dealing with consumer outrage.

Lots of modders out there...not just Darthmod. The Roma Surrectum series, the Rome Total Realism series...

You are right, Roma Surrectum was very good, but I like Darth because he come in relatively quick to fix the AI. Roma Surrectum was a while in coming I understand. Would you rather not have an AI fix in the next 3months or vanilla for a year or two?

I've seen this speculation and it does seem compelling I just don't understand this move. It wasn't advertised as cross console and the majority of the fan base is on the PC. If the initial release is so hampered and by the goal of porting the game eventually that it leads to a failed release (not fiscally), then I don't understand the long term success in this move at all. I'm just afraid CA could end up like Sierra and I eventually won't be able to enjoy real time battle based strategy games the same way I can't enjoy city builders like I used to...

You don't understand the move? Well to give you an idea, we considered doing the same with the first title. We wanted more money, plain and simple but worked out that it was too complex to port it.